‘Uncensored’: British Library uncovers censored pages about Elizabeth I’s reign after 400 years

A combination of centuries-old pages and modern technology has allowed historians in the United Kingdom to be able to read the first supposedly accurate version and official account of Elizabeth I’s reign. After no one has been able to read the heavily revised and self-censored version of the manuscripts by the 17th-century author for at least 400 years.

How were the pages ‘uncensored’?

The recent imaging technology has allowed the researchers at the British Library to read the hidden pages of William Camden’s Annals for the first time in nearly four centuries.

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According to a report by the Guardian, the process of enhanced imaging technology involved transmitting light under the pages in question which were either over-written or concealed beneath pieces of paper stuck down tightly. Therefore, any to separate the paper would have caused the pages to tear and destroy evidence.

The text revealed is expected to offer new insights about the queen and the political schemes of her court. The Annals, which are written in Latin andfirst published in two parts in 1615 and 1625, are based on first-hand accounts, such as witness reports and official parliamentary records, collected by Camden before his death in 1623, reported the Guardian.

British Library’s lead curator of medieval historical and literary manuscripts, Julian Harrison, told the Guardian how the experience of seeing the unknown passages emerging for the first time was “heart-stopping”.

He added, “The imaging is revolutionary. We’ve never done anything quite like this before. It’s just incredible.”

According to Harrison, the library is in possession of 10 volumes of these “handwritten manuscripts” out of which “literally several hundred pages…[have] passages which had been covered up.”

Why were the pages censored?

“Mordern historians commonly relied on Camden’s Annals as an impartial and supposedly accurate record. This new research reveals that key sections were revised…It implies that Camden’s Annals were deliberately rewritten to present a version of Elizabeth’s reign that was more favourable to her successor,” said Harrison, as quoted by the Guardian.

Speaking about some of the claims, the British Library’s lead curator gave an example of how it is claimed that Elizabeth I had named James VI of Scotland as her successor on her deathbed.

“Elizabeth never married and she died childless in 1603, to be succeeded on the English throne by Mary’s son, James VI of Scotland. Analysis of the manuscript drafts shows that the deathbed scene was a fabricated addition that Camden did not intend originally to put into his history,” Harrison told the Guardian.

It also implies that Camden did not want to offend his patron, King James, who commissioned the Annals.“He presumably included it to appease James, so that his succession looked more predetermined than it had actually been. Elizabeth was too ill to speak in her final hours and no other historical evidence points to this deathbed scene being true,” said the British Library curator, as quoted by the British media report.

Harrison also noted how there is still much left to discover and this could potentially change modern interpretations of Elizabeth I, who is seen as an important figure in British history.

About Camden’s Annals

Camden’s Annals has been hailed as a landmark in the development of English historical writing and arguably the single most important source in shaping the image of Elizabeth I and her reign. It has also been described as the first history of Elizabethan England.

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